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The Commerce Ministry has asked States to set up nodal agencies dedicated to the implementation of the agriculture export policy approved by the Union Cabinet recently.

At the first national workshop on the policy attended by senior officials from both the Centre and States, exporters and agriculture exporters, Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu said that such meetings would help to identify bottlenecks and get feedback and suggestions to improve and overcome difficulties in the implementation of the policy.

An MoU was signed between the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the National Cooperative Development Corporation to meet the objectives of the agriculture export policy at the workshop on Tuesday.

The Minister said that it was the first time that a comprehensive agriculture export policy has been formulated, involving all related sectors such as R&D, clusters, logistics and transportation.

The objective of the policy is to double agricultural exports from $30 billion to $60 billion by 2022 and reach $100 billion in the next few years. It also seeks to diversify the export basket, destinations and boost high-value and value-added agricultural exports.